The increasing use of optoelectronic devices in particular for message transmissions provides great challenges in the field of semiconductor research and technology when using the semiconductor material silicon, due to its indirect band gap. These challenges are even increased in that there is a need to join optoelectronic components with the current CMOS technology based on silicon. In order to avoid the disadvantages that are associated with wire connections like e.g. unacceptable delays or crosstalk or heating problems, efforts are being made to arrive at a monolithic integration of optical components on a semiconductor wafer (on chip).
For optoelectronic components of this type, known luminescent light emission bands in a spectral range of 1.3 to 1.55 μm that are associated with erbium doping, or dislocations, or dislocation networks are being used. A technological utilization of these infrared transitions in an optoelectronic device or a light emitting semiconductor structure requires particular process steps in order to increase the efficiency of a radiative recombination and to simultaneously be able to achieve control by circuitry.